Bodvarsson et al. (2003) argue that a non-recursive relationship between service and tipping has led researchers to underestimate the strength of the causal impact of service on tipping. In this paper, their arguments, analyses, and conclusions are criticized. Then, their data is re-analysed to...

Consumers often give service workers gifts of money in the form of tips. Desires to help servers, reward service, buy future service, buy social status/esteem, avoid social sanctions, and fulfill internalized social obligations have all been proposed as possible explanations for this behavior,...

In many countries around the world, consumers leave voluntary payments of money (called “tips”) to service workers who have served them. Since tips are an expense that consumers are free to avoid, tipping is an anomalous behavior that many economists regard as “irrational” or...

Many service firms allow their employees to be directly compensated by customers via the institution of tipping despite the fact this practice exposes firms to substantial risks, such as collusion between employees and customers against the firm. This paper examines a potential reason businesses...

Consumers in many countries often give voluntary payments of money (tips) to the workers who have served them. These tips are supposed to be a reward for service and research indicates that they do increase with customers’ perceptions of service quality. This paper contributes to the...

From a mainstream economic perspective, tipping is often seen as a rather anomalous or irrational economic activity since consumers could legally and willingly avoid paying tips altogether. Nevertheless, this pervasive economic activity generates tens of billions of dollars in income a year,...